{"id":3979,"date":"2016-09-05T07:29:50","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T15:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/?p=3979"},"modified":"2016-09-07T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T17:37:09","slug":"bullys-del-mar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/bullys-del-mar\/","title":{"rendered":"Bully’s Del Mar"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t

Bully\u2019s<\/p>\n

1404 Camino Del Mar (Hwy 101)<\/p>\n

Del Mar CA 92014<\/p>\n

1-858-755-1660<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sept. 3, 2016<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Open since 1967, Bully\u2019s is one of those hometown classics before cuisine got all fancy. I grew up with such a place in my hometown called Skips<\/a> and another not far away called Heston\u2019s back in the day, and now renamed as \u00a0Heston\u2019s Supper Club<\/a>.\u00a0 What these all have in common is being a meeting place for locals. A place you\u2019d feel comfortable in no matter who was there. That\u2019s the kind of atmosphere you find at Bully\u2019s in Del Mar, California.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t honestly describe Bully\u2019s as trendy, or even catering to the current rage of naming which farm, butcher, baker, or cheese monger provided the ingredients for your meal. This is not that kind of place\u2026thank goodness. Located on west side of\u00a0 the upscale main drag in Del Mar, at 1404 Camino Del Mar (better known as Highway 101), Bully\u2019s pulls in a decidedly local crowd \u2013 a crowd full of \u2018characters\u2019, old timers, and family\u2019s out for a good, simple meal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bully\u2019s prides itself on serving the \u2018finest Prime Rib in San Diego since 1967,\u2019 Montana raised, corn fed Angus beef \u00a0using no antibiotics or hormones. You can get a lot more than prime rib at Bully\u2019s but this is what they are known for and it\u2019s what we ordered.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bully\u2019s doesn\u2019t take reservations for party\u2019s under 6, but you are encouraged to call about \u00bd hour before you want to arrive so they will have a table for you. We wanted to enjoy the Pacific sunset before having dinner, so we called a little before 7pm, enjoyed a cocktail at the condo, then headed down to Del Mar.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two things you should know about this part of Del Mar. There is the \u00a0L\u2019 Auberge Del Mar, a 4-Star destination luxury hotel just down the street from Bully\u2019s, along with quite a few upscale eateries, bars, and caf\u00e9\u2019s. Second, it\u2019s in the middle of the block with little on-street parking, but a good amount of parking adjacent to the building which you get to by going down an ally just west of 101.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bully\u2019s is showing it\u2019s age for sure, but not decrepit, just showing the signs of having been loved\u2026a lot. We came in, were greeted promptly and seated by the hostess at a booth made for many more than two. The main room wasn\u2019t jammed but the bar area was hopping. The interior is a funny mix of red leatherette banquettes, thick timbers framing distinct parts of the room with their own roofs, and heavy wooden, low-backed club chairs. It reminded me of the Con Tiki Lounge in Chicago where each seating area had it\u2019s own thatched roof. Okay, not quite the Kon Tiki, but a western style cowboy esthetic. You get the picture.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A basket of warm breads were on our table before we settled in to our banquette. Kelly, our waitress, came right over to take drink orders. We ordered a pre-dinner cocktail. For me a Manhattan and for Steven a Bombay Safire Martini up with olives, very dry. It turns out Kelly has been working in the restaurant business for many years, and is herself seen by some patrons as a familiar pal\u2026sometime the consequences of which are a bit, shall we say, too familiar? Kelly is a good soul, taking her work seriously and with professional curtesy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The menu has a good range of offerings, but you\u2019d clearly be in the minority if you didn\u2019t order some cut of beef. We chose The Man O\u2019 War <\/em>cut, a whopping 40 oz Bully cut of prime rib. If you want to learn about it\u2019s namesake, visit Wikipedia\u2019s link on this legend of a horse. When sharing for two you aren\u2019t penalized like some restaurants who add a split-plate charge. Bully\u2019s embraces sharing\u2026again, this is a restaurant keyed into community, friends, and family \u2013 so no surprises there. Included in the price ($76.00) we got an additional soup or salad plus another side dish. We bot chose soups, Steven had the French Onion and I had the Albondigas. For our sides, Steven chose the baked potato (no sour cream for him, just butter and chives) and I had the grilled asparagus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The French Onion soup was very tasty and\u00a0 loaded with melted cheese, but could have stayed under the broiler a little longer. My Albondigas hit the spot, though I have to say it did remind me vaguely of Campbell\u2019s Vegetable Beef Soup. I doubt very much it was canned \u2013 the veg was too crunchy and the cilantro too fresh.<\/p>\n

\"Bully's,<\/a><\/p>\n

Next came the star attraction, the 40 oz of beef! As you can tell, it was pretty big and perfectly medium rare and served with house-made horseradish cream and a jus. We started our attack by cutting off the cap and sharing it. Then we went for the center, the prize to many, the eye. It practically cut with your fork it was so tender. With little fat in this part of the steak I used some of the horseradish to give it a little kick. We took our time working around the beast, but couldn\u2019t finish. We ended up taking about \u00bc home, including the bone. We both think the bone is the best part so we wouldn\u2019t have left it behind in any case.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

To accompany all this richness Kelly suggested we shared a bottle of a 2013 Russian River Pinot Noir from Rodney Strong Estate Vineyards.\u00a0 She likes Pinot\u2019s as do we so no arm twisting needed. The wine is not as full as we are used to from Oregon, not like the Stoller Pinot\u2019s we love, but it was pretty good. The finish was weak, but it did hold up well to the richness of the meat and sides. You should know, Bully\u2019s is more about the cocktails than the wine list. Go with an open mind and you\u2019ll be happy.<\/p>\n

\"Bully's<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bully's<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Related Images:<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bully\u2019s1404 Camino Del Mar (Hwy 101)Del Mar CA 920141-858-755-1660\u00a0Sept. 3, 2016\u00a0Open since 1967, Bully\u2019s is one of those hometown classics before cuisine got all fancy. I grew up… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3979"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4014,"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions\/4014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodfriendstravel.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}